Tournament: Envious of the Green and Gold

Introducing Conquerer Phusis and her trusty mercenary Leharas, poised to take on the forces of Hell!

Nightmare was slow. Phoenix strike was safe, but it was frustrating. There were no S/Us dropped for a long stretch, despite the fact that I was still wearing a topaz-socketed armor and helm. In Act3, I had a significant turn: Fleshrender (barbed club) dropped, which has crushing blow, open wounds, and prevent monster heal. I had often thought about a "dark" Assassin build oriented around blade fury, cloak of shadows, and other such skills. This drop, combined with my frustration with phoenix strike, seemed to indicate an alternative direction for the build. When Cleglaw's Claw (25% slow, knockback) dropped soon afterward, I took it as a sign and used my remaining respec to switch. After this, I was much happier. Later (principally in Act5), my drop luck changed. All told, here are Phusis' numbers entering Hell:

Character: Phusis
Build: BF / DS
Level: 69
Life: 974
Block: 72%
Damage Reduced: 15% (with fade)
Resistances: (with fade)
Fire: 85%
Cold: 9%
Lightning: 65%
Poison: 21%
Gear: Fleshrender, Whistan's Guard (ptopaz), Rockstopper, Isenhart's Case, Cleglaw's Claw, Nightsmoke, Vidala's Fetlock, Nokozan Relic, Cathan's Seal (no second ring)
Skills: Blade Fury (1), Death Sentry (20), Cloak of Shadows (3), Fade (5), Mind Blast (1), Venom (19), Shadow Master (17)

Mercenary: Leharas, Holy Freeze
Gear: Blackleach Blade, Blackhorn's Face, Spirit Forge

Amusingly this is exactly the build I had planned for this tournament, that said depending on what drops I may change my build.

Anyway I believe I need to sign up. Currently cleared all the way upto blackmarsh. I've found two S/Us. The gull in the Underground Passage and Pelta Lunata not long after in the Dark Wood.

[highlight]Viridiana, Assassin of some description, level 15, Black Marsh.[/highlight]
 
@Enceladus: Some of us are going insane trying to gamble a Gull and you want to mule yours out? :crazyeyes:

Are Gull's that easy to gamble? I thought it safer to keep it for another toon, and since I had just found my fourth S/U weapon, I didn't think that it would be a rule violation. Vengence could easily die in this, and I haven't another HC Gull blade.

Things are moving along pretty slow with a weaponless merc. I've finally gained the Princes' trust and am just about to enter the Palace in search of the evil that is there.

I found a couple of other S/U items:
Angelic Sickle - Maggot's Lair level 2
Civerb's Ward - Lost City
Hsarus' Iron Heel - Lost City

The boots have added a bit of pace :)

I've chosen to use the Death Spade as main zeal attack to blind the hordes and then switch to Skewer of Krintiz on vengence attack to finish off. I run out of mana too quick to keep vengence going for more than 5 or so hits.

I'm desperately gambling brandistocks and septums in an attempt to jag a Bloodthief or Lance of Yaggai.

Vengence, avenger, level 25, Lut Gholein about to enter the palace.
 
The Spetum gambles were in vain, because Lance of Yaggai has qlvl 30. (Bloodthief has qlvl 23, btw).

Thanks for that Jiansonz, I was wondering about that. I've been trying to find a listing of the qlvl for items, but haven't found one yet. All that wasted money :( Oh well, part of the adventuring process. I haven't done much gambling before, and have recently refreshed my understanding of the Magic items from the Arreat Summit, but they don't seem to have a qlvl listing there. If you have one handy...much appreciation and am still looking...

Found what i was looking for...
http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Base_Item_Levels
...and a bit more on the whole gambling line...
http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/basics/gambling.shtml
 
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I haven't done much gambling before, and have recently refreshed my understanding of the Magic items from the Arreat Summit, but they don't seem to have a qlvl listing there. If you have one handy...much appreciation and am still looking...

Found what i was looking for...
http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Base_Item_Levels
...and a bit more on the whole gambling line...
http://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/basics/gambling.shtml

Yeah, those are for the base items. Here is one that lists both that and the specific set/unique qlvls as well (courtesy of Hakai_no_Tenshi (and posted twice in the thread already)).

This info is lacking (or at least too hard to find) on Arreat Summit and in the wiki. I remember that it was there on the old purediablo.com site. My original source of stuff like this (d2data.net) is dead and the archive sites pointing to it only work now and then.
 
Yeah, those are for the base items. Here is one that lists both that and the specific set/unique qlvls as well (courtesy of Hakai_no_Tenshi (and posted twice in the thread already)).

This info is lacking (or at least too hard to find) on Arreat Summit and in the wiki. I remember that it was there on the old purediablo.com site. My original source of stuff like this (d2data.net) is dead and the archive sites pointing to it only work now and then.

Thanks once again jiansonz. They are much simpler compilations. The wiki does mention the qlvl, but calls it the "item level" and you have to drill down to the specific item which you can find a listing for at the bottom of the base item page that i linked. Here's what they say about the Bloodthief:

Bloodthief is a Normal Unique Spear with an item level of 23 and a Character Level requirement of 17.
http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Bloodthief

I also recently found your's and HC Gunther's guides to untwinked, single-pass, HC play. Great stuff, I'm already reaping the benefits :)

Though the rules for this Tourney (must wear S/U when found) constrain the full usage of those guides.

As you noted, I haven't had the chance to read through this thread in it's entirety and have missed some postings, but I was wondering if anyone has managed to actually gamble a S/U item yet - prolly should get a point or something for that with a 1/2000 chance ;) or a "I DID IT!" listing...and how much gold was gambled, I'll go back through the postings and see if anyone mentions their gambling successes.
 
Early players 3 Hell has this far been just right for a good but not frustrating challenge. The strong points of my character are the merc gear and my maxed Decoy. It allows me enough time to plan and play the fights. Fallen shamans are sometimes hard to deal with (because I can only kill them reasonably quickly with Jemali, and it can be hard to convince him to go for the shaman early), especially if they are not out in the open. There was one time in the Cave, where resurrected warriors blocked my escape when we ran into a dangerous boss pack. I portalled out and returned from waypoint. Could have become very dangerous otherwise.

Recent finds: Stormstrike, Angelic Wings.

I was reminded of the high area level in UGP level 2 when a boss dropped a magical Zakarum Shield. Don't skip this area on Hell.


[Highlight]Conqueror Martina the Immozon and Jemali the Holy Freeze guard, level 77, 13 S/U items equipped, Hell Black Marsh next[/Highlight]
 
Quick update; proper update later.

Act 1 Hell is completed. I started getting into some potentially dangerous situations by the end, which was fun. They were not seriously threatening, but they required strategic approaches -- I am beginning to see the appeal of underpowered HC characters. :) Andariel was difficult at first, but I figured out a positioning and rhythm that worked well. I was somewhat surprised to discover that Phusis was responsible for dishing out the build of the damage. It has also been interesting to discover that in some situations my mercenary is stronger than my shadowy friend, whereas in some situations it is the reverse. Act 2 is my least favorite act, so we will see how it goes.
 
Also a quick update.

Finished act 1 normal. Level 20.8. So close to 21 after fullclear ! Still haven't found any weapon, HOWEVER, I have two cleglaw's shields, and a pelta lunata. Apparently the game is telling me to build a shield-necro. Skill-wise, I'm getting points in all my curses, and waiting out for either a dagger (points in pDagger) or level 30 (points in Nova + remaining in pDagger). I'm too lazy atm to calculate how many I can safely put in pDagger. All I guess. Meh. No dagger => no use having the skill at the ready. I also lost 18%MF by finding Biggin's Bonnet. My rogue is now wearing it. I think I'll keep her. (Provided I find a bow within my first 3 weapons) Unless I find some awesome gear for a A3 or A2 merc. I like rogues.

G.R.D. (Screens maybe next time. Also got caught up in leveling my 1.07 sorc. Takes time.)
 
Nice going there, GoldenredDragon. I recommend heavy use of Poison Explosion in Act II. At that stage of the game, it's quite powerful even with only a few levels in it, and it's often easy to get a lot of mileage out of if you can tank monster packs in doorways and such. It does not cost much mana either.

(Level 20.8 is pretty high after the first act. I think I've reached level 21 about 5 times (in 70 or so playthroughs).)
 
Thanks for the tip, I'll try out poison explosion. I always read it was rubbish, but... yeah, whatev's, try it ! ^^ (Did I mention this is my first non-fishy necro?)

I got lucky with two monster shrines while I had XP shrines. And I saved some an XP shrine for the barracks, which had 3 boss packs. And /p8 obviously. Kinda makes me want to save those XP shrines for when I find monster shrines. Might seem tedious however...

G.R.D. (Gear restrictions are fun)
 
GreenGoldieII has finally finished Act 1 NM. Have definitely noticed the lower resists, especially by the 'Tainted' monster types (LR and CR were only 29, and PR was -9). Still killing fairly well at P7 though, so it's just about staying alive and using Salvation whenever there are elemental damage monsters.

I seem to be fated with the unique boots, first Hotspur and now Infernostride (not complaining at all though!). Andy dropped crap, I was really hoping for a unique headgear (exceptional unique helms are all so good), but alas, nothing.

Going to Act 2 hopefully by end of next week or the week after, still deciding whether to level zeal to 20 before I get more holy frost, or just go holy frost first. Still got a while to decide I guess, a good physical damage weapon would make my choice easier.

GreenGoldieII the teslafroster and Chalan the Blessed Aim merc, Level 52, Lut Gholein.
 
Viridiana has just finished Act 2 Normal. I decided to play her as a fire-trapper for the time being and respec into something else later on. Firetraps are pretty awesome through normal, and I'd assume they'd be good through NM as well.

I found 4 S/Us in this act. Dimoak's Hew Bardiche in Sewers (on Merc), Cathan's Seal in Arcane Sanctuary (on me), Deathspade Axe in Arcane Sanctuary (on switch) and Angelic's Sickle in the Tombs.

[highlight]Viridiana, Level 28, Kurast Docks, 7 S/U equipped.[/highlight]
 
Martina had some minor troubles in The Hole and Tower Cellars but careful play sorted those out. The PI Ghosts in there were the first enemies that Martina had to kill almost by herself. Jemali does small cold damage with his Holy Freeze but since he deals no poison or Open Wounds damage, that damage won't overcome their regeneration (plus their inherent mana drain lets them steal life).

Nothing better than Shael from the Countess. I do not think Hell Countess has ever dropped anything really nice for me.

Pit level 2 was scary as usual. I went with players 1, as I do with all characters that do not deal super AoE damage or have super crowd control. My plan was to stay back and have Jemali fight the Devilkin until they shattered, no matter how many attempts that would take on each of them, before letting him get to the shamans. Usually, you can defeat the first two Devilkin packs without waking up any boss packs this way. Not this time, as there was a Cursed Dark Stalker pack early on. I tried to time it so the Decoy would block them in the narrow passage near the entrance, but failed and they poured in! I exited up the stairs.

This is bad. That mob can dish out a lot of damage when we are Amped. Their level is 7-10 steps higher than ours, so they hit often. You might think that my CoS charges on Darksight Helm would save the day. Maybe they could have, but I should have done that earlier, when we had more space. Too crowded for that now.

It is for these situations I have Heart Carver and Whitstan's in my stash. I equipped them: 71% blocking. Good.

Plan B: go down, cast Decoy, run around the pack and try to lure them away and get out by portal somewhere on the righthand side of the level. That failed, because I got boxed in in the corner in the tiny entrance room. TP out.

What now? OK, that boss is Cursed, but that is also all she is. Her other two abilities are insignificant. There are no archers around, and no elemental threat. We can take them in a tanking fight!

Come on, meet our pointy sticks! Sweet, the boss can't reach us at the moment. I couldn't click on the rogue that was whacking Jemali in the back - only the exit was shown when the mouse pointer was there. Good, now I know I can get out if I need to. Jemali hardly takes any damage because anything in front of us attacks Martina and her shield is working in overdrive. Boss attacks, we stab her.

Down she goes, and we aren't even Amped! Yay.

The rest of the session was much calmer. I got the opportunity to try out Charged Strike twice, against PI + FI bosses. Here is the first, a goat. That worked pretty well. Damage per hit isn't impressive but I was impressed by the attack speed, so lightning damage over time is decent.

Only green/gold from the whole bunch of areas from Black Marsh to Cathedral was another Sigon's Guard. I have brought in Blade of Ali Baba for the next session. I will try to hold it when Andariel dies. Should be an easy fight. She has lousy fire resistance and I attack from range. I am more worried about tricky Dark One situations and nasty Ghoul bosses and such in the tight Catacombs levels.


[Highlight]Conqueror Martina the Immozon and Jemali the Holy Freeze guard, level 79, 13 S/U items equipped, Hell Catacombs next[/Highlight]
 
GreenGoldieII has been slain in the Claw Viper Temple.

I was humming along Act II quite well and everything went down fairly easy. Found Goblins Toe which I thought would be useful for the Duriel fight, so got really excited. Went on a gambling spree just after activating the Lost City WP to fill up my remaining helm and amulet spot, netting a Berserker's set helm and a Tancred's amulet within 100K spent. Thinking I was on a good luck spree, I pushed on ahead, found myself facing Cursed and extra fast Viper pack + extra strong something else Viper pack, which ultimately led to GreenGoldieII's doom.

Learnt quite a lot from the character though, especially about being cautious in HC (ironic, I know) and also about spreading monster packs out, aura switching etc. If I was going to play through again, I might pick HolyFreeze instead for the safety, as this guy was pretty fragile for the most part even at 460 life and 60%+ blocking since he had no crowd control.

I might enter in with another character, but might let the death settle in first. Good luck to all those still remaining!
 
Immortal_Slayer said:
Went on a gambling spree just after activating the Lost City WP to fill up my remaining helm and amulet spot, netting a Berserker's set helm and a Tancred's amulet within 100K spent.

Oh wow, that is freakin' amazing! I would say that gambling more than one S/U for the whole character's journey takes some really good luck...

Sorry about the death. Snakes can be very dangerous for a melee fighter.
You should have pushed his life up higher, definitely.




I am having a blast with Martina. As before, the game is just right for me on players 3. Challenging without being frustrating.

Meet Blight Shard, my most difficult kill this far. As it was Extra Strong and unleechable, Jemali could not tank it for long. I had to get it to attack the Decoy and I also had to have Martina hit it with her poison hits now and then. Damage was to be done with Charged Strike (against 75% resistance, ugh!) and Jemali's Holy Freeze hits.

Then there was the 'spider fleeing as it gets hurt' thing to deal with. First time this happened, Jemali switched targets. Blight Shard cowered in the corner and Martina could CS it outside its reach. I spent three full purples for mana here, because I really thought I could finish it off now. But for some reason, I failed to hit a ton of times in a row. Blight Shard regenerated back to 1/3 and attacked me. I had to regroup, go back to town for potions, and pretty much re-start from scratch. Sigh. (Jemali is dead here, btw...)

Next round, I could never find a good spot to avoid the LE bolts so it was painful to use Charged Strike. Then, just as I was about to portal back for more potions, Blight Shard fled to a corner again and this time, I could get it to focus fully on the Decoy and all sparks missed Jemali! Great, now it was just a matter of precise Decoy recasts and hitting with a poisonous arrow now and then.

As expected, Andariel was a cakewalk. The only characters I've had easier fights against Hell Andi with are Blaze Sorcs.
To boost the MF in the fight, I had borrowed Stealskull from Jemali and switched to Ali Baba + Mil's Orb when each of the final Immo Arrows had left my bow and were in the air. Only S/U in the drop was Bloodfist. I also found a Twisted Essence of Suffering.


Familiar tactics used here. Very relaxed fight when the Decoy was perfectly placed. I decided to switch out Lance of Yaggai for The Impaler. Its Open Wounds is way more helpful than the small lightning damage on LoY. Also, I use it more and more against regular FI monsters that have a decent chunk of life (so they take a while for Jemali to kill) and the ITD on this weapon helps a lot.


[Highlight]Conqueror Martina the Immozon and Jemali the Holy Freeze guard, level 80, 13 S/U items equipped, Hell Dry Hills next[/Highlight]
 
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Even from a distance, London Hilton could already tell that she wouldn't be able to brag to her friends at home about the magnificent exotic nature. All she could see was grass, and rain, and mud, and an encampment. Not too encouraging a sight, but her teacher had told her this was the way towards adventure and lovely fashion accessories, and so this was the way she would go.

She slowly made her way into the camp, until she was suddenly accosted by a man:
"Greetings noble traveller..."
"Whoa there, ease up on the belligerence pal! I mean, seriously, what kind of an attitude is that? You think I'm easy pickings just because I'm new to this place and I'm tired? And... Ewww, what's that smell? What... Wait a minute!"
It took London but two whiffs to realize exactly what she was dealing with.
"Camels! You are a caravaneer, aren't you? Blegh! Disgusting creatures, the lot of em! And the camels are even worse! Go sod off and roll around in a cesspool or something, anything to make you smell more appealing! Yuck!"

She left a speechless Warriv behind and made her rounds through the camp. And she came to a shocking conclusion.
"Great. Just wonderful. The entire camp is completely filled with women... I've seen only two men around, one is a fat bald merchant, and the other one I just mortally offended... I need to brush up on my social skills!"

London contemplated trying to talk to the camp residents, but then thought better of it. Chatting here wouldn't net her the green and gold she yearned for. It would be smarter to actually start doing that she had so diligently trained for.

With nothing more but a hand axe in her hand and a loincloth for a garment (her trainer had taken pretty much everything else away from her), she went outside to do battle.

<cue battle and general mayhem. Seeing as how all of you probably all have extensive experience in the field, and therefore know exactly how messy an irate barbarian with a hand axe in the blood moor can be, I'll just skip this part>

The rain washed the last drops of blood away just before she got back to the camp. London was in quite a state, however. She decided to unburden her heart to Atma, since she looked to be the most fashionable person in the entire encampment, and therefore the one she felt the warmest feelings for. As far as she could muster warm feelings for anyone willing to live in this abysmal corner of the earth, that is.

"Look, I try to be easygoing, you know? I mean, I'm well aware that my fighting skills are not yet finely honed, and I probably couldn't really cope with like, the really big dangers. I reckon that everything is a learning experience, but, really, WHY ON EARTH AM I FIGHTING HEDGEHOGS!!! I mean, I can never tell my friends that I spend my time fighting hedgehogs!"

Atma answered calmly: "Lucky for you then that they aren't hedgehogs."

London answered happily: "Really! That's great! So what are they then? Some sort of cool parasite demon or something? Or are they shapeshifters of some sort?"

"No no. They are actually a subspecies of rat."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

-------------------------------------------------------

That is where I leave London alone for a bit, in utter agony (talk about a damsel in distress...), to break down the dirty facts:
I just cleaned out the Blood Moor and the Den of Evil, and I got zip in the way of uniques and/or set items to show for it. Not unexpectedly, I might add.

so:

London_Hilton, The Barbarian who is really not a barbarian but just a female barbarian look a like, level insignificantly low, mental anguish unfathomably high on account of rat trauma. Hopefully she will recover enough to do the Cold Plains next. Hopefully.

:D
 
@Merlin: LOL, poor London! When she tells her friends, she could call those critters 'spike fiends' even though that is technically another subspecies.

I look forward to reading about her fashion disasters to come (masks, great helms and such...) and also if something that is actually stylish drops.




Martina moves on in Act II. Anywhere there is poison damage, I need to keep in mind that I can not count on the Decoy to survive for long. Huge difference between poison and no poison as to how much punishment she can survive.

I've used Cloak of Shadows for the first time, twice actually, at the start of Halls of the Dead level 3. Large first room with a major fight. Thankfully, not all of the 15 or so mummies joined the fight right away, but they were there the whole time with their annoying poison. Also in the fight were FI bats and some spear cats, including a Champ pack throwing from the back of the room. I needed several merc resurrections and retreats (both stairs and TP) but managed to win without much danger for Martina.

The main Maggot chamber was absolutely packed when I got to it (I had been close to the room for a long time due to the dungeon layout). The fight took over 15 minutes and I needed about 20 each of red and blue potions.

Interesting fact: Martina has never needed to buy any arrows. Early on in last level of Maggot Lair is the only time she has had under 50 in the pack (i.e. getting the yellow arrow graphic to show up).

Recent finds:
- another Skin of the Vipermagi (exactly the same stats as the one I am using: 29% resist all, MDR by 13)
- Goldwrap (stashed because using it would break my Sigon's 3-combo)
- another Arctic Horn
- another Cathan's Sigil

Current resists are 85 fire, 24 cold and 31 lightning. I would really like to find a good lightning resist grand charm. I think I'll do another pgem rerolling session of Grand Charms now.


[Highlight]Conqueror Martina the Immozon and Jemali the Holy Freeze guard, level 81, 13 S/U items equipped, Hell Lost City next[/Highlight]
 
Awesome progress guys!

Sorry i haven't been posting much or playing for that matter. RL is a bit hectic for me at the moment, not much time to play at all.

Keeping an eye on this thread though!

Good luck to Guardianship Jian ;)!
 
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